Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Horacio Ramirez Sucks. Get Over It.

Come with me, if you don’t mind, on a tour of recent history.

May 21st: Zack Greinke allows two runs in six innings, departing the game with a slender 3-2 lead against the Indians.Horacio Ramirez, who comes into the game with a sparkling 5.84 ERA (his lowest at any point this season), starts the top of the seventh.He allows a leadoff single, and after a bunt and a groundout, surrenders another single to blow the lead.Jamey Wright comes in and allows a go-ahead RBI double; Ramirez is eventually saddled with the loss.

May 22nd: With the Royals now in St. Louis, Kyle Davies follows Greinke’s effort with a six-inning, two-run performance of his own, but his teammates fail to score a run for him.Ramirez once again starts the seventh.After getting two quick outs, Ramirez surrenders a home run to the mighty Tyler Greene.Nonetheless, Ramirez is brought out to pitch the eighth as well, and gives up a single to Skip Schumaker, followed by a double to Brian Barden.He IBB’s Albert Pujols, retires Chris Duncan, and then heads to the showers as Kyle Farnsworth gives up a two-run single to put the game out of reach.

May 24th: Two days later, the Royals once again get a six-inning, two-run effort from their starting pitcher, this time it being Brian Bannister.With the Royals holding a 3-2 lead on St. Louis going to the bottom of the seventh, once again Trey Hillman inexplicably calls on Ramirez.Ramirez retires the first two batters in order, then intentionally walks Pujols with the bases empty.He then allows a wild pitch on his way to walking Chris Duncan, forcing Hillman to make the unconventional move of replacing one lefty reliever with another.In his season debut, John Bale, uh, bales out Ramirez by whiffing Rick Ankiel on three pitches; the Royals would hold on for the win.

May 27th: Ramirez is called on with two outs in the sixth inning to rescue Davies, who has allowed seven runs so far and leaves a man on first base.Ramirez gives up a single to Josh Anderson, and is immediately replaced by Roman Colon, who gives up another single to plate the eighth run before ending the inning.

June 2nd: Once again, Davies is on the mound.Once again, the Royals’ starter has allowed two runs, only in this instance the game is tied, and instead of being called upon to start an inning, Ramirez is brought in with two outs in the sixth – and men on first and second.The first batter he faces, Matt Joyce, hits a two-run double that effectively ends the game.Ramirez would pitch a scoreless seventh, but the game is already over.

Over his last five appearances, Ramirez has pitched four innings, allowed eight hits and five runs.He blew a one-run lead in one game, gave up the tie-breaking runs in another game, allowed a 2-0 deficit to get out of hand in a third game, had to be rescued by another pitcher to preserve a lead in a fourth game, and gave up a hit to the only batter he faced in mop-up relief in the fifth game.

And before this stretch, he had a 5.74 ERA.

It’s now June, and Horacio Ramirez has a 6.86 ERA for the season.He has allowed 27 hits in 19.2 innings.He only has 12 strikeouts.He has walked 10 batters (granted, three intentionally).He has allowed three homers.There is absolutely nothing on his statistical record that is positive.

And still Hillman sends him out there, in key situations, gambling that Ramirez won’t cost the Royals yet another game.

I guess it would make sense if the Royals were desperate for a LOOGY, even though Ramirez, you know, doesn’t even make for a good LOOGY.Except last I checked, the Royals have both Ron Mahay and John Bale on the roster, meaning that they’re keeping Ramirez around even though they have two better left-handers in the bullpen.

Look, guys, I know you invested a lot of money in Ramirez.I don’t know why you invested a lot of money, mind you, because he had done nothing to deserve the money, and no other team was particularly interested in offering him a comparable deal.But you did.You blew $1.8 million on a pitcher who doesn’t belong in the major leagues any more.It happens.Teams make mistakes.

But the money is gone, and no amount of putting Ramirez on the mound to justify that contract is going to bring the money back.All you’re accomplishing by keeping Ramirez on the roster is proving that you can’t resist throwing good games after bad money.

I have no idea if the Royals are going to turn things around, whether they’ll get back to .500 this year, whether they’ll contend again in 2009.On paper, there’s no obvious reason why the Royals can’t reverse course.But I know that the Royals aren’t going to win a damn thing so long as they’ve got a GM who isn’t willing to cut losses on a contract that was a mistake the moment it was signed, and a manager who doesn’t understand that just because you have a pitcher on your roster doesn’t mean you have to use him in tight situations.

Horacio Ramirez sucks, guys.The sooner you accept that fact, the sooner we can get around to the business of putting together a winning roster.

This post should be retitled: "Horacio Ramirez sucks, anyone who would conceivably be used instead of him sucks, and the team is currently the victim of 4 1/3 innings of a perfect game by some guy I've never heard of."

I watched the dropped ball in center field in the first inning, and thought I would party like its 2004. Paused the game, mowed the lawn, and didn't even bother looking at it and was not shocked it was 8-0. This team could lose 110 games. They do nothing well except hand the ball to Greinke every fifth or sixth day.

I am scheduled to go to Houston to watch a couple of games later in the month, and I am not sure I can do it. This is freaking brutal.

I was just thinking of something, and I suppose it could be a possible explanation for Hillman's use of HoRam.

His last name is Ramirez, and he's part of the Royals' bullpen, right? Do you think it's possible that Hillman missed the fact that Ramon was traded, and Horacio was signed as a free agent, and Trey thinks he's been running RamRam out there for all of these games instead of HoRam?! :)

That's the only reason I can think of for him having used Horacio so often. Maybe someone should mention it to Hillman before the next home game.

This is the perfect time to say my peace. The fact of the matter is, Dayton Moore came along at a very opportune time (when we were at our worst and our owner was finally tired enough of losing that he decided to spend some money). However, he's not done anything with that money to show me that he's even an average GM...much less the kind that deserves the credit we give him. I recently started an analysis of his tenure, year one is done (www.kcsportsreport.blogspot.com). What I think it's at least starting to show is that we're improving because Glass is spending money, not because Moore is a great GM. This team is not good and there's nowhere in the organization to look for help. It was three years ago when Moore arrived, the only difference between then and now is the $25 million more we're spending on payroll...not how we're spending it.

Moore has only had two drafts, and got here with absolutely nothing in the minors. He basically had to start over, draft young supposedly upper echelon players, and just bide his time until they are ready to be here. The Baird era left him with two average players in Teahen and DeJesus, a still unproven Gordon, and an ace. I'd include Buck, but he sucks. That's it. He had nothing of any value to trade, and he definitely didnt have a lot of money to spend in free agency. That's why we have the guys we do. Somebody has to play, and without the players in the minors or the money to spend for good ones, this is what we get until the guys from the 07 and 08 drafts are ready.

At least SOMEONE recognizes how smart baseball should be played. Rany, can you at least be a bench coach or something? How are the people who are supposed to be the smartest at baseball decisions making the dumbest mistakes?

Gang, Moore has not quite 3 years under his belt in his position, so he's not exactly Omar Minaya or Andy MacPhail, guys that have years of experience and have been GM for a couple different teams each based on their experience level. What makes this worth keeping in mind is that unlike, say, Andrew Friedman, who has roughly one year more under his belt as GM of the Tampa Bay Rays, Moore is not simply rebuilding a major league roster. He's rebuilding an entire FRANCHISE.

Friedman has done an excellent job as the GM in Tampa. I don't think anyone will disagree. But he came into a situation completely different from the one that Moore took over for. Tampa had 8 losing seasons under it's belt when Friedman took over; Moore inherited a franchise that's had a losing season every year except for two seasons since 1990 (God, that hurts to type). Friedman inherited an organization with young prospects just on the cusp of becoming stars at the major league level. He inherited a farm system that is essentially second to none, brimming with talent. Moore took over a major league roster with throw-away's, hack's and aging veteran's that couldn't get a deal for a winner. And he inherited a farm system that was so dry that even after what has been back-to-back pretty good drafts (especially last years - Melville and Montgomery that late in the draft?? C'mon, get serious, folks, that's just ridiculous!) the farm system is STILL considered virtually bone dry. He took over a Royals franchise that had virtually NO international scouting and player development.

All of this is my long-winded way of showing that stating Moore hasn't done anything exemplary is not only inaccurate, but it's a complete mischaracterization of historical facts. He doesn't have the same job as the other GM's - he isn't just rebuilding the big league team, he's rebuilding the entire freaking organization. So will there be bumps along the way and mistakes made (including some costly ones like the 1.8 to HoRam)? Absolutely. But it's not fair, and it's definitely not accurate or justified, to start throwing Moore under the bus yet. Give him 5 years and then evaluate. Look at it as a business, not as a fan. This was a business going under when he took over it. He can't generate an IPO for it overnight.

PS - The fact that the Glass family is spending more money now is a direct result of Moore's efforts. If that alone doesn't qualify him as one of the better GM's in franchise history, then we should all just go root for the Cardinals. Because we're screwed otherwise.

I try to watch myself when criticizing Hillman because I know how bent out of shape some can get about it but I just don't see the logic sometimes. Farnsworth gave up the most HRs per 9 in the league last year and he starts the year by sending him/keeping him out there against Thome in Chicago and Texas in Texas.

Farnsworth starts to turn things around and he switches to sticking HoRam out there every other night even though he is the worst we got.

DM has made some very very questionable moves lately and Hillman uses those newly acquired players in the worst possible way. It's gotten to the point where all I can laugh when Pena takes the field or Jacobs is in the lineup against a lefty.

We do all these things when a guy who hasn't been given a chance yet remains in AAA in the form of Kila.

I understand that a lot of things are not going right that Hillman or DM have no control over but lets try not to make it any worse than it has to be, shall we?

i agree that moore is a great GM and that the majority of his moves have been right on point. the acquisitions of meche, bannister, davies and soria are indisputable, as are the signings of greinke and soria. personally, i also like the acquisitions of crisp, jacobs and callaspo.

but even great GMs make a certain % of bad moves. the ramirez move was not his only gaffe. how about j.p. howell for gathright, announced two days after dayton says publicly that pitching is the organization's #1 priority? and certainly the hillman hire is looking dubious.

I think the only way the Royals can become watchable right now is to eat a ton of salary. Bye-bye Jacobs, Guillen, Ramirez, Buck and/or Olivo. Bring up guys from Omaha to replace them who are not just absolutely frustrating and might actually catch a ball once in a while.

Rany, early on you wrote about how exciting it was to have a major league hitter at every spot in the lineup. Where have those major league hitters gone? Who are we supposed to feel good about when they are announced as the batter?

This is more frustrating than when Glass wouldn't spend money because now they are spending and don't seem to have a clue how to spend. That just magnifies the obvious deficiencies of the manager. I'm a 44 year old who has been a Royals fan for as long as I can remember (went to my first game in 1972). Hate feeling this frustrated.

Unfortunately there aren't many guys in Omaha that can catch the ball either. They've blown FIVE games in the ninth so far this year and have lost EIGHT one run games. Just last night they had a 1-0 lead with 2 outs in the ninth when an E5, a stolen base, and an E2 took the final out of the game and turned him into the tying run on third base. Followed by a triple, a single, and another frustrating loss for the AAA Royals. Anyway: any help is a long way away.

I'm sure this will be moot by the time you get aroud to it, Rany, but Glavin has me intrigued, and not just because he would be the 3rd best pitcher on our team TODAY. Any chance you can evaluate him and his possible impact on the Royals.

Why the Hell weren't the Royals going after that Pirates outfielder? An above-average defensive outfileder with 20 HR pop and the ability to steal bases? Couldn't he play here? Hmmmm.....

Watching Tuesday's game when they brought Ramirez in I said to a friend that was over, "Has Ramirez ever come into a game with men on base and NOT let them score?" A minute later the ball was flying into the gap, Ramirez was slamming his fist into his glove and the game was out of reach by Royals hitting standards. I suspect Ramirez's ERA would be much higher if his inherited baserunners counted against him.

Last night when the Royals were down 1-0 I commented to a neighbor, "Well, they lost again tonight." It was good perspective because I just figured from there on out the other 8 runs were just insurance runs. They bother you a little less that way.

I'm sorry I can't be more elegant with my words right now, but I'm SO PISSED OFF that his vocal inflections tend to make me think the Royals are actually doing something good when it's actually the opposite.

THE GUY CAN'T CALL A GAME FOR SH*T

He can't even call a basketball game very well.

AM I ALONE?

?

?

?

I realize this doesn't quite fall under the "topical" category, but I have to do something to take my mind off of the JOKE OF A GODDAMN TEAM THAT IS THE ROYALS.

You're absolutely right - the J.P. Howell trade did not work out. But remember that at the time it was made, Howell was no one, and everyone in Royals land - front office, players, fan base, media, etc - thought we were winning out on that trade, because at the time Gathright was perceived as a guy with talent enough to start but was on a team filled with A-tier talent and there just wasn't a roster spot for him. We thought the same thing when we got Shealy, if you recall. And we thought the same thing when we signed Hillman. My point is that, if you objectively retrace the timeline and arrive back at the point that these deals were conceived, NO ONE disagreed with them. Anyone that says otherwise is merely arguing for argument's sake. They were - at the time - no-brainer decisions. J.P. Howell for a starting CF and leadoff hitter that could steal 40 in a blink? Absolutely (that was the dominant thought, keep that in mind - we didn't know back then that Joey was only good for jumping over cars). Aside from the GM's involved on the other side of the deals we made, there wasn't anyone who wouldn't have made those deals also. We're the Royals man - any other team, and those deals probably pan out (I said it last year, and I'll keep saying it: it's the curse of Mark Davis).

Moore's going to be fine. It's Hillman we need to worry about. Bringing Meche out to start the 7th when he was at best effectively wild (5 bb's and only 2 k's) all game and had already crested 100 pitches throug 6 innings? And you bring him back out to start the 7th? Really? Yeah, I know - we can always second-guess and in hindsight say that it was the wrong call, but I legitimately was sitting in my car when it happened and got a bad feeling in my stomach - BEFORE the next hitter went yard.

I just want a manager that has had some proven success at the ML level! Why do we always hire guys that have never succeeded at the job before? Hillman - never managed in the bigs. Bell? Never managed SUCCESSFULLY in the bigs. Pena? Never managed in the bigs. Muser? Ditto. Remember when Buck Showalter was a candidate for the job the same time Tony Pena was? Make whatever quips you like about his ESPN personality but the guy is proven as a manager. Why the hell did we take Pena over him again??

Btw, I already know the answer. I was being sarcastic: managers are just like players, they want to only go to organizations where they know they can win. The Nat's, the Marlins, the Royals, etc - we're stuck getting guys trying to cut their teeth still. But that's why I focus in on passing up on Showalter - he actually wanted to come here. And we said no because he had a history of rubbing players the wrong way. Poor babies...

I've actually had a couple of conversations with friends recently about how much I hate Bob Davis. And mostly for the same reasons mentioned here -- it absolutely pisses me off every time his voice inflection shoots sky high and there's fever-pitch excitement for...a fly ball to medium range center. Don't freaking get my hopes up only to dash them to pieces - I already have enough of that with this team. Plus, he just plain sucks at calling baseball. He has no good old baseball stories to tell, he has no interactions with the players from what I can surmise - so nothing to talk about there, and no real background in baseball,so pretty much all he can do is give the count and the score. Then next time I hear him say that so-and-so has a 2-game hitting streak, I think I'm gonna scream. Please Royals - banish Bob Davis back to basketball.

On the other hand, I really like Steve Stewart. He's good. Great baseball radio voice - clear and crisp. I like him a lot, and would be happy if he were the future voice of the Royals.

Moore has only had two drafts, and got here with absolutely nothing in the minors. He basically had to start over, draft young supposedly upper echelon players, and just bide his time until they are ready to be here. The Baird era left him with two average players in Teahen and DeJesus, a still unproven Gordon, and an ace. I'd include Buck, but he sucks. That's it. He had nothing of any value to trade, and he definitely didnt have a lot of money to spend in free agency. That's why we have the guys we do. Somebody has to play, and without the players in the minors or the money to spend for good ones, this is what we get until the guys from the 07 and 08 drafts are ready.

You're pretty dumb.Billy Butler IS OUT BEST PLAYER

Moore got rid of

NunezRam RamJP HowellOctavio Dotell Wellemeyer

GOOD PITCHERS! Those 5 along with Soria (who was picked up by a BAIRD SCOUT) would make up the best bullpen in MLB

Bob Davis - good broadcaster, excellent college play-by-play man(different animal), mostly unlistenable for Royals on Radio. Needs an actual partner/color commentator. I believe Bob started his career calling baseball at Fort Hays MANY years ago when he got his start, so it's not like he picked up baseball 3 years ago or something, but yeah, it's not good.

Steve Stewart - worse than Davis. the score updates every two seconds are god-awful and unnecessary.

Denny - still the same great call, but with Davis and Stewart joining him in the booth, there's not much reason to listen.

I miss Split, who can do it all (former star player, color man, and excellent at play-by-play too). Frank knows his stuff and will only get better, but the delivery makes it hard to enjoy sometimes.

Ryan - Great announcer, but he and Split work much better than he and Frank.

When Denny retires, i think they need to blow the whole thing up (radio side), and keep Ryan, Split, and Frank in some capacity.

Bob Davis is horrible. I have the same problems as mentioned above. In addition, I hate how he tries to use baseball lingo in his broadcast to sound baseball savvy. Have you noticed how many times he tries to work "veteran" into his calls? I hate him.

starting to think moore may not be the prodigy we hoped for and envisioned.

it's frustrating to see now more than a handful of teams drafting players who are contributing to the major league team within 18 months while we're drafting guys who are "impact bats" but "a few years away from contributing."

this team blows right now. it blew last year. and every year since 1990. that's 20 years of blowing.

given that we suck and have several guys we need to replace at the MLB level, why then are we the team drafting high school kids that aren't ready while the detroit and its $130 mil payroll are drafting rick porcello and putting him in the majors at age 20?

somebody mentioned that gathright was a consensus starting OFer that we obtained for "pitching depth."

So clearly, I don't hate the man Bob Davis, I just think he's horrible at calling a baseball (AND BASKETBALL) game. (Honestly, if he was an announcer for, say, Baylor or Nebraska, the fans of those teams wouldn't say "he's great", they'd hate his guts. He is NOT good at what he does).

If they do that, I'm done as a fan. You don't trade the best pitcher in baseball over three years from him reaching free agency==============================You do when you haven't done a damn thing in 20 years, and are still 2-3 years away from winning. You do when you have the roster that we have, and the inability to improve it without spending $100 million in free agency, with Greinke being the only player every team would kill to have. You do when you are tired of hearing all the fans bitch and moan about how bad the team is. Real fans knew it would take a long time to turn this thing around. The whole organization was a joke. DM has to redo everything. All the new fans think it can be fixed in two years. It cant. I look forward to going to the games in a few weeks when all the new fans are gone, and I can enjoy the games in peace and quiet, with no lines.

And Greinke is not the best pitcher in baseball. He's top 5, but not the best.

If you quit rooting for a team because they trade a guy, then you aren't a real fan anyway. We won't miss you.

while ramirez isn't any good, and it's frustrating to see him used so often anyway, that the reason the royals have collapsed is that they stopped drawing walks and working for good at bats.

the organization announced that obp was important. they hired seitzer, who preaches the right message. but they import guys who don't draw walks, and the kids who come up with some promise in that area, go backwards rather than forwards.

that's the biggest problem in KC right now...and, it's been a real serious problem in KC for a long, long time.

they need to do more than give lip service to what's really one of the biggest foundations for winning baseball games: getting guys on base.

I agree it is unfortunate to have lost three starters, but to this point we have no idea if Aviles is the real deal and Buck teases occasionally but never maintains it for any length of time. I like Gordon and hope he fulfills the promise he came in with. But we have no reason to believe that the lineup is made up of major league hitters.

That blog entry alone illustrates WHY I'm concerned about whether or not the Royals are heading in the right direction. Dayton Moore was stupid enough to offer $1.8 million (...say, I'm left handed, I wonder how much money I can sucker DM out or myself?) to Ho-Ram in the first place. Hillman has compounded that mistake by INSISTING on using Ho-Ram REPEATEDLY when the game has been on the line.

Hillman should be fired for that feat of stupidity alone, much less all of the OTHER fireable acts of stupidity (I'm STILL pissed about Farnsworth to Thome on opening day) Hillman has proven himself capable of. It's hard to have faith in a team that does stuff that's so blatantly stupid, regardless of some of the smart moves they've also made.

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